


the four times tenma cooks up a meal

by rakuenoasis



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort, Cooking, Fluff, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Gen, if u squint hard there is tenyuki, kumon comes like super later, set post act 2, tenma is such a softie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:07:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24461764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rakuenoasis/pseuds/rakuenoasis
Summary: and the one time they do the favour in return.
Relationships: Sumeragi Tenma & Summer Troupe
Comments: 5
Kudos: 65





	the four times tenma cooks up a meal

**Author's Note:**

> it's 3 am and this has been on my mind lately

_**one.** _

The last person Yuki had expected to find in the kitchen at three in the morning was rising actor, crappy-actor-to-the-highest-of-the-highs, Tenma Sumeragi.

Yet there he was in all his snotty and pompous glory overshadowing the darkness of the room, lavender eyes fixiated on the pot before him as the spoon on his hand stirs whatever goop is inside it. He wasn't really able to make out what it is. But the way his posture was straighter than usual and the smile on his face was reaching from ear to ear told him that whatever it was, it might've been something promising. (At least, to Tenma).

Tenma and cooking were two words that he could never put together in his mind. As far as he knows, Tenma is never one to be actually good in anything that isn't breathing, acting or bonsai raising. That's how much of a useless person he seems, Yuki thinks. He can't read directions right. He can't even walk home without getting lost or having his ego let himself be distracted by his fans. And even until now, he's still gullible enough to believe that Santa Claus is real. (Which he finds kind of cute, but Yuki keeps that to himself). 

It didn't look like the kitchen would be exploding any time soon as he couldn't smell any kind of smoke coming from his area. (Rather, the surprisingly familiar aroma was so alluring that even Yuki was entranced by it for a moment.) So he silently prayed for the next best thing he could hope for: a safe stomach free from food poisoning.

Something told Yuki that he should leave Tenma be. Despite everything about him that makes the actor so helpless, Tenma is sixteen. If nothing terrible was likely to happen and the hack's silence sent signals of wanting privacy almost by instinct, then Yuki could just skip the glass of water he had been meaning to get and sleep off his thirst. But the second he was about to leave him to his own devices, he suddenly heard his name ringing in his ears.

It was hoarse and low but still loud enough to catch Yuki and his nerves off-guard.

He bit his lip for a bit. "D-Don't get me wrong, you crappy actor. It wasn't like I came all the way here because I got worried about you not being in bed. In fact, I can just skip the glass of water and leave you be. Good luck getting poisoned by whatever Matsukawa-like bullshit you made."

Instead of responding however, Tenma turned the stove off, took a bowl, and poured some kind of porridge (?) into it.

"Congee?"

Ah, no wonder the aroma felt familiar, Yuki thought to himself.

But, whatever. It definitely wasn't like Yuki sat down and took the bowl from him with a very quiet, "Thank you, Tenma."

He definitely, _definitely_ did not sit across rising actor, crappy-actor-to-the-highest-of-the-highs in the dining room and fell into the seemingly comfortable silence between them as they ate the congee he had prepared.

And his eyes _absolutely, most definitely_ did not widen and beam at the very first taste.

(He definitely didn't ask for seconds either.)

.

_**two.** _

Muku's greatest fear still remained to be the prince-like celebrity Tenma Sumeragi.

Even with the tears they had shared backstage during the closing night of their first play, he still couldn't help but mentally cower every time he walked into the room with his Tenma-like confidence and poise being carried by his manly body. It scared him to death because compared to Tenma, he was nothing but a shriveled up and insignificant caterpillar that can be easily stepped on just by anyone. (Yuki once said that it's ridiculous. But Yuki, for all the defiance and complaints he has towards their leader, was pretty much the same as him. Of course he wouldn't understand).

His second greatest fear was knives.

So when he held them up just above the potatoes, he felt his whole body freeze. In his mind, everything was a blur as all the possible outcomes that could happen flooded his system at once. What if he cut his finger? What if he stabbed himself? Oh, he can't even imagine going to the hospital at this rate either way! He's going to be such a burden to Director, Summer Troupe, everyone, Juuchan, _his parents_. He could practically hear them now saying, "Look at stupid idiotic Muku who is oh-so terrible at holding a knife that he got himself hospitalised because he _stabbed_ himself! Poor, useless Muku Sakisaka who will forever remain a disappointment to society and his loved ones will die alone because his stupid phobia won't let him hold a knife!"

(The fact that he was alone in the dorms today didn't help. He just hoped his fragile body would make it to the phone so he could call emergency services in case it did happen.

But what would they say once he tells them that he accidentally cut himself on the finger or stabbed himself trying to cut potatoes?)

It was then, like magic, a voice called out to him...panicking, at that.

"Sakisaka, put that knife down!"

And just like the speak of the devil, there stood prince-like, monster aura Tenma Sumeragi who looked like he was about to jump on him if he moved even a single finger.

It was then that Muku remembered: he wasn't alone in the dorms. Tenma was the only other person who stayed behind for that day. This made the knots in his stomach turn even more. Here he was facing a worse-than-it-seems nightmare. Oh, how he wish he could wake up from this terrible dream. Oh, how he wish there was a mysterious third person who stayed in the dorms so he could slay the beast for him. He was no prince. He was no hero. He was a _coward_.

He felt a shove and a hand swiftly taking something from his fingers.

Muku opened his eyes and braced himself for the worst only to see Tenma...peeling the potato?

"This is the first thing you should always remember when preparing potatoes," Tenma started, in his matter-of-fact tone. "Unless you're making baked potato or mashed potato, _always_ peel the skin first."

Muku watched as his hands moved quickly as they went around the potato, peeling it and dumping its skin onto the tiled table until he blinked again and finally saw its bareness, the yellow showing itself under the light.

It didn't seem like Tenma was ever going to let it rest however because next thing he knew, he pinned the potato onto the board and chopped them. When Muku blinked again, he saw the thinly chopped potatoes pouched on Tenma's hands.

"The key to making good fries," he continued as he put them in a bowl while making his way to the sink. "Is to make sure that they don't end up brown and ugly. Fries look more appealing usually when they remain yellow-ish." Tenma then turned on the faucet and filled the bowl with water until it was full enough for him to turn it off. "This is why putting them in cold water is important."

"A-And then you fry them after, right?"

Tenma then looked at Muku like he wasn't making sense which tightened the knots even more. 

"Not really," Tenma answered, much to Muku's surprise because he didn't scream at him in response. "Contrary to popular belief, there's a specific batter you need to prepare for fries to look like fries. Here, let me show you,"

He grabbed a skillet from one of the bottom cabinets, turned the stove on, put it above the fire, and poured enough oil until it seemed that Tenma was satisfied at the amount. Afterwards, he went to the fridge, collected a few ingredients, and set them down with a, "Get me a bowl, a fork, and a spoon, please."

Afraid of Tenma yelling at him if he didn't put himself together enough to process what was happeing, he did as he was told and set them down next to the ingredients. Tenma then swooped the bowl and put it in front of him.

"Now listen to this," Tenma started. He poured an amount of flour in the bowl. "Pour in some flour,"

He then added a yellow-ish kind of solid that looked like salt. "Garlic salt,"

He then added another kind of salt that looked somewhat like the garlic salt but wasn't. "Onion salt,"

He scooped some regular salt to his fingers and sprinkled them into the mixture. "Your regular salt,"

Tenma then brought out a bag with something that looked very familiar to Muku. And indeed, his suspicions were confirmed when he poured some of it into the bowl. "Paprika,"

He took his spoon on one hand, held the pitcher of water on the other, and as if by natural coordination and instinct mixed the ingredients together while he poured water into it. "Do this until the mixture on your spoon looks something like," He then put the pitcher of water down and brought the spoon up until Muku could see a thin trail of the batter slowly falling from the spoon's tip. "This."

Tenma took the fries from the sink and, with a fork, coated each slice into the batter before slowly putting them into the skillet. Muku could only watch in amazement. For a moment, it looked like Tenma came straight out of a cooking show.

(And he wouldn't be surprised if he had a cooking show at some point. Tenma definitely knew what he was doing throughout all this. He looked so handsome, so cool with his confidence pumped out as usual without even breaking a sweat. He almost reminded him of that chef protagonist in one of the shōjō mangas Muku had read once.)

"Never ever put fries into the skillet together," Tenma added, cutting Muku's train of thought. "They'll clump together. And they'll look ugly once they come out."

Once the fries were set into the skillet, Tenma sighed in relief. "For a second, I thought you were really going to stab yourself."

Muku whimpered. "I'm sorry,"

Tenma looked at him with his eyebrow raised. "Why were you even making fries to begin with?"

"W-Well," Muku began, gripping onto the already crumpled bottom of his shirt. "Our home economics teacher gave us this take home assignment. We were... supposed to take a picture of our finished work and everything."

There was a beat of silence.

"I'm so sorry oh my God—"

"It's fine, Tenma," Muku giggled, feeling the intensity of the atmosphere slowly go away bit by bit. "In fact, I should thank you for teaching someone as useless as me this. Now I know what to do next time,"

It was then that Tenma sighed. "Just tell your teacher that you did it."

"...eh?"

He shrugged. "Promise. I don't mind. This will be our secret, as well me knowing how to cook. I really don't want anyone finding out about this..."

"Why so, Tenma? You looked like a MasterChef winner when you were making those fries!"

There was a brief smile from Tenma for a moment before it disappeared and his eyes suddenly looked a little bit distant. Muku hinted at the vulnerability in them which only loosened the knots in his stomach only to have his heart drop at the sight of Tenma looking...sad?

"I rather not talk about it."

(Soon after, the fries were done. Muku sent the picture claiming ownership, bit on the fries, and let out a, "Tenma, this is so delicious!" before getting another piece.

Tenma shyly asked afterwards if they could make burger patties together for lunch. And Muku, with all fear he has of Tenma gone into the drain, happily agreed.)

.

_**three.** _

"So there's this new thing I wanna try out!"

Again, Kazunari was rambling to Tenma for the nth time this week. Again, Tenma looked displeased. But it didn't stop the ever eager Kazunari from announcing it to him like it was some important speech. With all tension from their first set of practises gone by the end of closing night, he started doting on Tenma like he was his own little brother. And although he knew it annoyed the mega-famous celebrity to no end, it didn't stop Kazunari from pulling him into his nuances.

"Apparently, someone on the internet made like a hundred-layer lasagna! It's, like, totes crazy,"

Tenma raised his eyebrow and whipped out his phone, seemingly typing something on a search engine and tapping on what seemed to be a button afterwards. 

"I'll believe it when I see it."

Minutes passed and Tenma looked almost shocked, which spelled as a total success on Kazunari's part. Phase One of Getting Tenten to Livestream with Him: Complete!

"...That's...cool."

"Right, right? I wanna make that so badly! That's why—"

"Good luck figuring that out yourself,"

And with that, Tenma stood up from his chair. Just as he was about to walk away however, Kazunari pouted at him. "But Tenten, I was thinking of doing it together! I mean, we may be inexperienced with all the cooking stuff but at least I dont have to be stupid at this alone."

He heard a flinch for a moment, before Tenma sighed. "Fine. But I won't be responsible for anything that happens on your part."

Wait, your?

"Alright, Tenten! Phase Two of Getting Tenten to Livestream with Me is a go!"

"Wait...livestream?!"

Tenma gritted his teeth and took a step back. "Okay, there is no way you are going to livestream this with me in it! No way! Not even if you beg with your knees on the ground."

"Aww, can we at least make the lasagna together? I promise that I won't livestream at all."

He then sighed. "Fine. No. Livestreaming. Okay?"

Kazunari felt more than pumped afterwards, grinning ear-to-ear at how successful his plan was despite the setback. With all the stress and work Tenma have been going through lately, it felt nice to pull him out of all of the mess and into something where he could relax. He may not know what Tenma feels every time these things happen. But he knows what being in the spotlight is like: excruciating, stressful, a mental pressure that eats you up once you're at the centre of the stage. Just for a bit, he wanted to make him feel like an ordinary boy again, not the prodigy actor everyone in Japan knows about. 

And even if they mess up, at least they'd have fun in the end right?

A session of shopping and almost halfway through the preparation process later, however, Kazunari still felt alone in his bubble of inexperienceness.

He didn't know what possessed Tenma to actually take the responsibility of making the sauce, supposed-to-be-inexperienced as he was. Actually, no. He didn't know what possessed Tenma to be so amazing at actually cooking that he put the ingredients and heated them together as if they were nothing. He saw the immense concentration in his eyes, the upright posture of his back, the same fiery passion in his expression that he'd make whenever he acted or tended to his bonsais. 

"Sauces are very hard to handle. But they're challenging at the same time," Tenma remarked while slowly adding the milk into the pot. "There's a certain specific taste that you have to get for it to work well with other food."

And he _rambled_ nonchalantly, just like how he'd talk about acting and bonsais and all the other new things that would excite him.

"Is that so? Isn't it like...enough that it tastes good?"

Tenma huffed. "That's only what an untrained tongue would say. Trust me. You'd get it when you open yourself to these kinds of flavours."

Now that he thought about it, Tenma did seem a lot more nitpicky when they were shopping for ingredients. Every time Kazunari would get anything from the shelves, Tenma would tell him off and say that this isn't the best ingredient for this and that before getting something diffrrent from the shelf. At that time however, he had only dismissed it as Tenma being his picky self.

Tenma added the dash of salt and pepper before gently stirring the mixture again. He then watched as the celebrity took a spoonful of the bechamel and looked at him back in the eye. "Taste test this for me, will you?"

For a second, he almost felt ashamed for asking a seemingly professional cook almost on the same level as Omi to make something he could probably do in a matter of minutes AND loop him into the inexperienced bubble as well.

In fact, he felt guilty. Way guilty, totally. How could he doubt Tenma, especially since he still barely knew the man outside the cameras and live interviews?

Kazunari took the spoon, blew the steam away, and took a sip of the sauce.

The tear-jerking taste in his mouth only made him wonder if there was more to Tenma not wanting him to livestream their cooking session. Even he didn't know that Tenma could actually cook, to begin with. In fact, he never recalled Tenma ever saying that he knew how to cook in the first place.

(He shoved all thoughts into the back of his mind when the lasagna was done and they both digged into the masterpiece they had made.

When Kazunari cut a part off, however, it fell onto the plate and some parts of the table. The two Summer Troupe members stared at it in silence before Tenma broke it off and laughed.

For a moment, the guilt eating Kazunari up disappeared.)

.

_**four.** _

Misumi came home, empty-handed of triangles, and a frown on his face.

It was one in the morning.

Normally, he wasn't one to be greeted with a worried face as he has never been accustomed to seeing such directed at him. That was for Madoka, who ran away from home to play around twice or thrice before their (no, his) father smacked him enough to be afraid of ever stepping out again. Nobody but his grandpa really cared about the scraps on his wounds or the warmth of his forehead every time the summer fever would get him.

But his grandpa's gone now. And Misumi knew that he shouldn't rely on his memories forever as a crutch.

After all, the house is no longer quiet anymore. And he can get all the onigiri he wants. Isn't that enough?

He didn't know if it was the sleepiness or the haziness of his mind at that time. But Misumi swore that he still saw light coming from the entrance of the dorms.

It was one in the morning.

If there were people who stayed up at that time, those moments were super rare as the Director always managed to drag them back to bed. So for someone to actually have the lights on at that time meant an act of bravery. Much as Misumi wanted to applaud for their bravery, he still decided to stay silent so as not to blow their cover.

He quietly opened the door and snooped around to see...Tenma?

What.

He observed further and saw Tenma taking out what seemed to be a tray of...biscuits? Cookies? Moving a bit more forward confirmed that it was indeed a tray of cookies. But they weren't just any tray of cookies. And Misumi may or may not have let out an almost loud gasp at them.

On one row laid cookies shaped like Yuki's bear. The row next to it had cookies shaped like a crown. Next to it were cookies shaped like a fedora. And at the other end of the tray had cookies shaped like triangles.

He heard Tenma laugh rather softly. Misumi could feel his heart soften at the sound of it. He never heard Tenma laugh like that before.

"You're going to look great tomorrow when I give them to the guys," he cooed.

Misumi's eyes widened.

Maybe this was an intruder. For all the annoyances and irritations and walls Tenma carried everyday, the last thing he could really imagine was him being this soft.

He then glanced at the string bags next to him. He then saw Tenma place the cookies in an assorted fashion one by one.

Suddenly, it all made sense to Misumi. But even with the warm gesture and affectionate action, there was still something...awfully wrong about this.

Before Tenma could notice the other's presence in the room, he quietly parkoured his way up the stairs, already making plans about what to do and how to do it tomorrow. 

He quietly looked over at the room he and Yuki shared, then the one with Kazu and Muku which he was about to knock on.

But something inside Misumi told him, "Nah. That can wait." And he sighed, agreeing with it. It'd be rude to wake them up at this hour, after all.

So he tiptoed his way into his room, reminding himself of what he has to do in the morning.

.

_("Are you sure? The hack is considerably the best out of all us, though."_

_"That's true. He nitpicks every single wrong thing you do when you cook."_

_"You too, Mukkun?!"_

_"It'll be fine, guys. We're doing this for Tenma, after all. He's done so much for us and it'd be rude not to give the good boy a reward, right~?"_

_"That's true!"_

_"You're right, Sumi!"_

_"...well, anything for the hack to stop excluding himself like this.")_

.

_**one?** _

"You did what?"

Yuki grunted as he shoved the bag of cookies to a very, _very_ confused Tenma.

"I said take it. We didn't work our asses of while you were away from here just for you to dump them like it's nothing."

"I didn't even _consider_ dumping them in the first place-"

  
  


"What Yukki means is," Kazunari held his shoulders and gently pushed him to the side. "We didn't properly express our thanks to you for guiding us during rehearsals for our first play. It really really _really_ means a lot to us!"

"Not just for the times we practised and performed together," Muku nodded and continued. "But for the little moments you've loved us in your own way. Like when you helped me with that fries homework and we made patties together, for instance!"

"Or when you cooked up congee for me at one in the morning,"

"Or when we made that big lasagna together."

Tenma could only stare at the orange star-designed string bag. He gently opened it to find cookies with sunflower designs. Carefully, he took it and bit into the cookie. In an instant, they could see the sparkle in his eyes.

"This is delicious."

"Of course it is. The Friendly McExtrovert fussed us over the measurements and the taste of the batter. He rambled about achieving the perfect specific taste or something."

Kazunari laughed. "Well, I might have gone overboard with this. But Yukki was also fussy about it! He insisted on designing the sunflowers himself because according to him, our art isn't as cute as his!"

"Ha?! Did you _want_ to draw flowers realistic enough to scare the shit out of the hack?!"

"Hey, guys!" Muku exclaimed. "The cookies are done and Tenma saw them. No need to fight over this!"

"I'm not fighting!"

"Yukki was just being totes adorbs with all the effort he put onto these Tenten cookies!"

Yuki huffed and crossed his arms. "Well, it's the hack's fault anyways."

"Ha?!" Tenma exclaimed. "How is this _my_ fault?!"

"Don't lie to us. You made cookies for us last night. And according to the Triangle Alien, you didn't make one that represents you."

Tenma fell silent. Yuki seized it as an opportunity to continue.

"Did your empty brain really forget what I said the other week? This play won't work without the leader. And that's _you_ , Tenma. But it extends beyond that,"

All attention seemed to have been shifted to Yuki, whose cheeks were growing red by the second.

"This group...this _friendship_...won't work with one of us missing from the team. And in this case, it's _you_ , Tenma! So no more of that exclusion stuff! You're with us now until death do us part and that's final."

Tenma only blinked, trying to hide any emotional urges in his body. Instead, he brushed it off with a, "I'm still surprised that you know my name."

"Is that _seriously_ what you got from all of this?"

"But anyways, how did you know about what I did last night anyways?!"

Misumi giggled, stepping forward. "Sorry, Tenma. I couldn't help myself."

Tenma could only shiver, feeling somewhat goosebumps from the image of Misumi sneaking up at him. "I'm scarred for life now. I'm never going to go down alone again."

Misumi pranced his way to hug Tenma, whose only reply was, "Let go!"

"Tenma is such a softie after all! Kazu, hug him! He's warm!"

"I SAID LET GO-"

Kazunari marched forward and hugged both Misumi and an almost stabby Tenma.

"Sumi's right! He's warm!"

Soon, Muku joined in until Yuki was the only one left. But they didn't push him to do it. They knew what boundaries he has at this point. They knew that hugging for him was off-limits.

But the smile on his face and the soft, "Thank you, Tenma." that escaped from his lips made the unbearable hugging all worth it for Tenma.

And if they happened to hear the also soft, "Thank you, guys." from Tenma himself, that is a secret they can only share with each other, along with the happiness and warmth of his food in their beating hearts.

.

.

.

**_five._ **

"So there's _another_ chef in this dorm?"

Yuki chuckles, sharing a knowing look with the remaining troupe members sitting on the table. "Well, at this rate, we can end up becoming a culinary house instead."

"Does Yuki know how to cook?"

Before Yuki could reply, Kazunari butts in with a, "Are you kidding me?! Yukki can burn the entire house if you leave him alone in the kitchen!"

"Hey, you didn't need to say that! It was a one-time thing!"

"One time meant that time he tried to boil an egg," Muku piped in.

"And the smoke alarm went weewoo weewoo~." Misumi added

Yuki screamed, blushing furiously. "Not you too, Wonder Boy and Triangle Alien!"

"Alright, the meal for today is done!"

Kumon looks to the direction of the kitchen and sees the last person he'd ever expect to hold a spatula.

"T-TENMA?!"

**Author's Note:**

> notes??  
> \- i hc tenma as someone who's probably good at cooking because of his latchey kid status (provided that he doesnt have servers in his house which is highly likely because he usually notes about being alone when he's at home)  
> \- in tenma's perspective, cooking is his way of showing love aside from acting bc it's smth he can pride himself in. it's a personal thing for him but now he has people to share his cooking with and it's such a warm and comforting thought aaa......happy tenma makes me happy  
> \- yuki can't even hold a knife properly how do you expect him to boil an egg properly  
> \- (fr i just want chaotic yuki fucking something up)  
> \- the thing yuki said about the play not working without tenma is in reference to what he said in act 2, chapter 28 (along with the whole "you actually know my name" shtick)  
> \- the 100 layer lasagna was from tasty KLDFJLKDJFK
> 
> anyways, thank you for making it this far!! you can find me @tentenyukki on twt!!


End file.
